


Prophecy and Change

by Rens_Knight



Series: Another Set of Eyes: A Star Wars Alternate Universe [3]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Literature, Sci-Fi, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-14 15:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14772707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rens_Knight/pseuds/Rens_Knight
Summary: A look into one of thirteen year old Ben Solo's nightmares.  If only the poor boy knew that the cause of his nightmares and his apparent salvation were one and the same.For a second he wonders...but sadly, that little glimpse just won't enough.





	Prophecy and Change

**Author's Note:**

> This story is written as part of a prompt exchange with [EsmeAmelia](https://esmeamelia.deviantart.com). We have a shared headcanon that Snoke was directly manipulating Ben Solo's mind all the way back to his early childhood, so she requested the following: _"Write about a time when the young Ben Solo almost tells his parents about Snoke's telepathic communications with him, but he changes his mind at the last minute._ "
> 
> Unlike the other two prompts I've written for Star Wars Month so far, this one could take place in both the canon universe and my ASoE-verse AU.  
> 
> In the ASoE-verse, this story takes place near the last part of "[Castaway](https://rensknight.deviantart.com/art/Star-Wars-Castaway-Another-Set-of-Eyes-universe-677794303)" on Hosnian Prime, after Ben was suspended for using the Force to haul up a couple Chagrian bullies who would not leave him alone, and his parents and uncle were making that fateful decision to send him away.  For his own good.  Or as it felt to Ben Solo... _for good_.

**Star Wars:  
"Prophecy and Change"**

****

He had failed again, and the lightning that tore through him was his reward.

He had tried--how many times he could not tell--to claw his way to the surface of the vision, that place he knew as the waking world, only to find a distorted facsimile of his room on Hosnian Prime.  Godforsaken hellhole of a city-world where the hate for his family rose every day, but at least it would have been _real_.

Instead he was back on the tempest-wracked stone island, curled in a fetal position screaming, with an ever-growing sense of desperation at the realization that he was unconscious, trapped.  And this was not a dream--not exactly.  This was more than that.  This was a nightmare, and worse...a nightmare in the Force that would not let him go.

Lightning struck again, this time at a remove.  What was it the Guardian in the Dark had taught him--to understand, and then _control_.  He could not break free of this place until he had divined its message and seized hold of it, bent it to his will, if he was strong enough.

 _If_ he was strong enough.

Footsteps echoed on the rain-drenched cliffs--unsteady now, but headed towards him nonetheless.

There was an enemy here; he was sure of it.  An implacable enemy that would destroy him, and everything he ever loved, if he allowed it.  It had already claimed one victim from the inside out.  It would call itself Light, but that was only a mask for the true nature, the _one_ nature that bound it all together.  And it would claim him too, if he allowed it.

" _Guardian!_ " he cried out.  " _Help me!_ "  Then he chastised himself.  _Stupid!  Stupid!  Stupid!  You must be_ worthy _of help!_   Mewling like a tooka kitten would accomplish nothing.  Keeping on the move--showing his strength-- _that_ stood a chance of drawing his salvation to his side.

Footsteps again--lighter this time, from another direction.  His head whipped around, seeing nothing through the rain.

He reached out in the Force--an act the vision allowed to an extent his few innocuous dreams never did.  He expected to touch the pure and utter terror he had found within himself and the universe in many a nightmare, the one that did not pretend to be anything other than what it was, but terrified him nonetheless.  Instead...there was _something_ there.  And she was _hunting him_ too, just like the greater presence that had pursued him from the beginning.

Lightning cracked again, and he scrambled his way up to...not a summit, exactly, but a flat area amongst the cliffs that offered something of an oasis.  There was grass beneath his feet, something to hold himself steady even when the wind that had threatened to blow him off the cliffs howled around him.  And there was a gnarled old thing, more roots than tree, that offered some promise of shelter.

And more.

There was something more there.  It needed to be seized.  Or destroyed.  Either way, it was _he_ who must determine its fate, not the others that might seek to take it from him.

But first...he had to _survive_.

The first figure--male, robed--clambered after him onto the cliff.  Black robes...utter black...whipped about him.  " _Ben!_ " he snarled.  His features were hidden beneath the shadows of his hood, and in the vision they shifted, at once pale and blazing, at once familiar.  

_Emperor Palpatine_ , he thought to himself for an instant before the image shifted and became something far, far more familiar--

There was no time to discern his identity.  Or identities.  The male figure turned away as another voice shouted after them--a woman this time--but this one cried out his secret name, the one known only to himself, the Guardian in the Dark, and, it seemed to the Force itself.

He knew why the _first_ figure was here.  He could feel its malice, born of fear, seeking to destroy him before he could seize hold of the answers he sought.

But he did not know why _she_ was here.  One instant, she too snarled and sought to destroy.  Her face was hidden, her voice muffled and transformed by...a veil...a mask...he could not tell.  It became something else every time he turned to look.  The vengeful destroyer in white.  The questing pilgrim in grey.  The somber devotee in black.  Either he was outnumbered and soon to die, or his desperate summons had been heard.  He did not know which.

This was it.  He had to take a chance.  He leapt forward, stretched out his hand towards the second figure, he commanded, he pleaded for her to see the truth, not to listen to the vengeful old being and his lies, to understand and act--

Everything _exploded_ around him, leaving nothing but a metal deck and the utter darkness.  _His_ darkness.  " _I have saved you_ ," the sonorous, deep voice intoned.

"Thank you," he whispered, simultaneously relieved and contrite.  His eyes could make nothing out within the blackness, except the faintest hint of light that told him he was standing on _something_ as opposed to _nothing_.

" _You seized hold of the vision_ ," the Guardian of the Dark confirmed.  " _And that is good.  But you rely too much on others' whims.  You know what this universe will do to you given the chance._ "

Oh, he knew.  He saw it--he _sensed_ it every day at school, the mockery, the _contempt_ beneath the surface.  The disdain for his mother and her politics, which were not like theirs.  And the fear that _something_ about him was not like them, and therefore must be made to submit.

" _We must work on that_ ," the Guardian commented.  " _Sentiment will be your undoing, child, if you surrender to it.  For that is what the ones who seek to undo you will try to cling to, to keep you blind until the last minute.  And they will have their way unless you see true and strike without hesitation.  And that is when your true destiny will begin._ "

"Are there going to be spies with the Jedi?" he asked.

The Guardian in the Dark did not answer directly.  " _That is only the beginning_."

"What about you?  Will I be able to call you there, or _see_ you there?"  A thought occurred to him.  "Maybe if I could see you _now_ , that would help me to find you if things get bad."  He pushed forward in the Force again much as he had on the storm-wracked island, seeking revelation, a great warrior, wise and powerful--

\--for just an instant, the silhouette of a wraith, gaunt and twisted...human?...no, Pau'an?  Muun?--

 

\--and Ben Solo jolted upright in bed, shoved the covers off of him with a gasp as pain shot through his body like lightning.

What was that he'd seen-- _what was that_ \--was _that_ the Guardian in the Dark?  What had he _done_?  Had he made the wrong choice to try and see the source of the mysterious voice that had accompanied him since childhood?

Had he made the wrong choice to trust the Guardian in the first place?  Was the Guardian--was he some sort of _monster_?  An enemy?  He had to tell Dad.  He had to tell Mom.  Or even Uncle Luke--

 _No!  Damn you!_ he swore at himself.  _No!_   They'd just use that as one more excuse to put him away, dump him off on that Jedi world whose location nobody even knew except Uncle Luke, instead of sending him back to school after his suspension for fighting was up.  For _defending_ himself, damn it!  Even Dad understood _that_ , Vice Principal Tarooka and Mom and even Uncle Luke didn't.

And Dad was _way_ outnumbered.  That was damningly clear.

And if there was one other thing the vision reminded him of, it was this: that appearances could be deceiving.  What was beautiful could be ugly--and what was ugly could be beautiful.

No.  He would keep his own counsel, as he always had where the Guardian in the Dark was concerned.  Only then would the Guardian forgive him for his transgression, for the Guardian ( _like Dad, a small voice whispered, tremulous, uncertain_ ) would forgive him as long as he kept trying to become strong.

And then, at least, he would not be _completely_ abandoned when he went to the Jedi.  

He would not be _completely_ alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Here are the songs that inspired this...yeah, they aren't light listening, as you might expect...
> 
> Apocalyptica: "Struggle" [www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdb9x…](https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdb9xsItaA)  
> Apocalyptica: "Pray!" [www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC0P2N…](https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC0P2Nh-mP4)  
> Saltillo ([menton3](https://menton3.deviantart.com)): "A Simple Test" [www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeQmPT…](https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeQmPTGvya8)
> 
> Also...yes, I know the title is inspired by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine rather than Star Wars...specifically, the Bajoran Orb of Prophecy and Change. But I like the fact that the Orb is named both for destiny and for the change that WE create in the world. I may not agree with the Jedi on much, but the concept that the future is always in motion is one I DO agree with, that a vision of the future in SW should NEVER be taken as authoritative. Doing so tends to bring about exactly what one fears the most. Hence Prophecy AND Change.
> 
> That is also why I went back to the idea I initially alluded to in "[Our Little Secret](https://rensknight.deviantart.com/art/Our-Little-Secret-Childhood-of-Kylo-Ren-entry-612397644)," that Ben is perceiving things that could be true in multiple ways, in multiple futures, with the woman he sees in his visions being a key example of the future constantly shifting around. These futures include the one we know as canon, the ASoE-verse, EsmeAmelia's "Without a Heart" universe, and Dark Rey AUs, amongst others. But the critical thing is... _none of these futures is set in stone_. It takes an _infinity_ of choices to lead up to any one of those universes, or the other ones out there: one moment alone is not enough to do it. And therein lies the rub.


End file.
